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Facebook security team zeroes in on Koobface hackers

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A Facebook security boss says police are closing in on the authors of the infamous Koobface worm.

Nick Bilogorskiy, who leads the anti-malware team at the social network, told delegates at the Virus Bulletin conference in Vancouver on Wednesday that the hackers behind Koobface made an estimated $35,000 per week through their botnet in 2009.

But he added that the true identities of the miscreants behind the worm are known to Facebook and that "law enforcement agencies are investigating", according to a report on the presentation from security firm Sophos.

The Koobface strain of malware has targeted surfers on Facebook and other social networks for months. Prospective marks are typically encouraged to download malware disguised as a Flash update or similar content from a third-party website, which is under the hackers' control.

The business plan behind the malware relies on a combination of promoting scareware and raking in income from click fraud, as explained by security analyst Dancho Danchev here. ®